On 4-Dec-2007, "Pierre Hallet" <pierre.hallet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote in message <5rlkglF14rclrU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
> kkwweett :
>
> > I'm French and I'm looking for an english translation
> > of a french expression ("usine a gaz") which is
> > literally [gasworks] but which means a working device
> > or machine so complicated that it is highly probable
> > that it crashes very soon and that it is almost a
> > miracle that it is still working.
> > Is there an equivalent phrase in English ?
>
> My /Robert-Collins/ proposes "huge labyrinthine system".
Beurk. Pas du tout une expression idiomatique tout faite, et lourde
d'ailleurs.
> (Une manière comme une autre de suggérer qu'il n'y a pas
> d'équivalent convaincant. Mais attendons ce qu'en diront
> des anglophones natifs.)
Perhaps "house of cards". That's an elaborate, scaled-down
building constructed with playing cards (cartes à jouer); the
slightest disturbance will cause the whole thing to collapse.
Rien de meilleur ne me vient à l'esprit en ce moment. Je conseille
au préopinant de poser sa question dans
<fr.lettres.langue.anglaise>, forum plus fréquenté que celui-ci.
> You might have also "Rube Goldberg machines" (should this
> not ring any bell, just Google it). But then I suspect it
> is not exactly what you had in mind. "Usine à gaz" is used
> in French to refer to organizations or to administrative
> processes, not to physical devices as such. I would say
> that a Rube Goldberg machine works--in an absurdly complex
> way, but it works--while an "usine à gaz" works by an
> unlikely constant supply of miracles.)
Your description of a Rube Goldberg machine is exactly right.
Not only is it absurdly complex, but there's an obvious, much
easier way to accomplish the same result.
--
Jim Heckman
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